The crews off the coast of Australia are hoping one of the ships, subs, or planes will find debris that can lead to the missing jetliner and the black boxes.

The batteries inside the "pingers" are expected to fade in the next couple of days so British subs are trying to get close enough to "hear" the pinging before time runs out.

If the black box is not found before the pingers stop, search teams will rely on sonar scans of the ocean floor. This technique was the same method used to find the wreckage from air France flight 447 back in 2009.